AgencyHR is one of those tools that exists to solve a very specific problem for a very specific audience: insurance agencies that need basic HR functionality baked into the agency management platform they already use. Built as an add-on module within AgencyZoom (now owned by Vertafore), it handles time tracking, PTO management, HR documentation, and internal communications for insurance teams. It is not a full-featured HRMS by any stretch.
At $3 per user per month plus an $8 base fee, AgencyHR is remarkably cheap. But cheap and effective are two different things. If you run an independent insurance agency and already use AgencyZoom, this module fills a real gap. If you’re shopping for a standalone HR solution, you’ll quickly find AgencyHR too limited for serious consideration.
What Is AgencyHR?
AgencyHR was created by AgencyZoom, a sales and automation platform for insurance agencies founded in Columbus, Ohio. The product was born out of conversations with AgencyZoom customers who described pain points around PTO management, onboarding paperwork, and HR recordkeeping. Rather than building a full HR suite, AgencyZoom developed a lightweight HR module accessible directly from within the AgencyZoom platform.
In November 2021, Vertafore, one of the largest insurance technology companies in the industry, acquired AgencyZoom. The product is now branded as “AgencyZoom powered by Vertafore.” This acquisition brings both stability (Vertafore is well-established) and uncertainty (acquired add-on modules sometimes get deprioritized). Notably, the standalone AgencyHR website at agencyhr.com currently loads to an empty page, which doesn’t inspire confidence in active development. Documentation and support for the product live within AgencyZoom’s support center.
AgencyHR Key Features
Time Clock
AgencyHR includes a built-in time clock that lets employees clock in and out directly from their AgencyZoom dashboard. It tracks breaks, calculates overtime, and generates timesheet reports. Overtime alerts notify managers before costs spiral. The time clock data integrates with AgencyZoom’s compensation calculator, which helps bridge the gap to payroll processing (though actual payroll must be handled in a separate system).
PTO and Leave Management
The PTO manager is arguably the strongest feature. Employees can submit time-off requests, and managers approve or decline them within the platform. The system supports multiple leave types (vacation, sick, personal) with custom accrual rules, carryover policies, and balance visibility. Employees can see their available balances at any time, which reduces the back-and-forth that plagues agencies using spreadsheets for leave tracking.
HR Events and Documentation
Managers can document employee evaluations, write-ups, disciplinary actions, and other HR events. Each event can require an employee acknowledgment, creating a digital paper trail. The vendor cites a telling statistic: 72% of agency owners wish they had better records when terminating an employee. This feature directly addresses that concern by centralizing HR documentation in one searchable location.
HR Broadcast Messaging
AgencyHR includes an internal broadcast messaging system. Managers can send announcements to the entire team or specific groups. The critical differentiator here is the acknowledgment requirement: each message can require confirmation that the employee read it, with automatic logging. This is useful for compliance-sensitive communications like policy updates, safety announcements, or benefits enrollment reminders.
Employee Onboarding
New agent onboarding can be partially automated. Managers can set up company profiles, store employee data, and establish HR policies within the system. The onboarding workflow handles initial document collection and policy acknowledgment. It is basic compared to dedicated onboarding platforms, but for an agency bringing on a handful of new agents per year, it covers the essentials.
Celebration and Recognition Features
The platform includes a celebration feature that automatically sends notifications for employee birthdays and work anniversaries, complete with the option for eCards. It’s a small touch, but for agencies with 10 to 50 employees, these small cultural details matter and often fall through the cracks.
Call-Off and Tardiness Recording
AgencyHR lets managers record call-offs and tardiness events tied to individual employee profiles. This creates an attendance history that can be referenced during performance reviews or disciplinary conversations. It is straightforward but fills a real gap for agencies that previously tracked attendance issues informally or not at all.
AgencyHR Pricing and Plans
AgencyHR keeps pricing simple. There are no tiers, no feature gating, and no confusing add-ons. Every subscriber gets access to the full feature set.
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Base fee | $8/month |
| Per-user fee | $3/user/month |
| Free trial | 30 days, no credit card required |
| Free plan | None |
For a 10-person agency, the total cost is $38/month. For a 25-person agency, it’s $83/month. That’s extremely affordable for any HR tool, though the limited feature set partly explains the low price. No annual discount or alternative billing options appear to be available; it’s month-to-month only.
One important note: AgencyHR requires an AgencyZoom account. It is not available as a standalone product. If you don’t already use AgencyZoom for your agency management, you’d need to factor in that cost as well, which changes the value equation significantly.
Integrations
AgencyHR’s integration story is thin. As a module within AgencyZoom, it natively integrates with AgencyZoom’s own features, including the compensation calculator. Beyond that, the broader AgencyZoom platform connects with tools like Gmail, Outlook, Twilio, RingCentral, and ActiveCampaign. However, these are AgencyZoom integrations, not AgencyHR-specific connections.
There is no evidence of a standalone API for AgencyHR, no Zapier integration, and no marketplace of third-party HR integrations. Critically, AgencyHR does not include payroll processing, meaning you will need a separate payroll system (ADP, Gusto, Paychex, etc.) and will likely need to manually export or re-enter timesheet data. For agencies expecting their HR tool to connect to a broader software ecosystem, this is a notable limitation.
Customer Support
Support for AgencyHR is handled through the AgencyZoom support center. Live chat is available Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time. There is no phone support or 24/7 option mentioned in any documentation. Online help articles are available through the AgencyZoom support center, covering setup guides and feature walkthroughs.
The limited review data available paints a positive picture of support quality. The one detailed review we can reference rated customer service a perfect 5 out of 5. However, with such a small sample size, it’s hard to draw broad conclusions. The restricted support hours (business hours ET only) could be a pain point for agencies in western time zones or those with weekend operations.
Pros and Cons
AgencyHR’s strengths and weaknesses both stem from the same reality: it’s a lightweight HR module designed for a very specific audience. Here’s how that plays out in practice.
Pros
- Extremely affordable at $3/user/month plus a small base fee, making it one of the cheapest HR tools on the market
- Native integration with AgencyZoom eliminates the need for a separate HR platform for existing AgencyZoom customers
- PTO management is well-designed with custom accrual rules, carryover policies, and self-service employee requests
- HR event documentation (write-ups, evaluations) with required acknowledgments creates a useful compliance paper trail
- 30-day free trial requires no credit card, making it risk-free to evaluate
- Simple, single-tier pricing with no hidden fees or feature gating
Cons
- No payroll processing; time tracking data must be manually transferred to a separate payroll system
- Requires an AgencyZoom account, making it inaccessible as a standalone HR product
- Very limited integration ecosystem with no Zapier support, no dedicated API, and no third-party HR tool connections
- No dedicated native mobile app; relies on mobile-responsive web design only
- Customer support limited to live chat during Eastern Time business hours with no phone or weekend availability
- Extremely sparse user review data makes it difficult to assess long-term reliability
- The standalone AgencyHR website fails to load, raising concerns about ongoing product investment post-Vertafore acquisition
Who Should Use AgencyHR?
AgencyHR is built for independent insurance agencies with roughly 5 to 50 employees who already use AgencyZoom as their agency management platform. If that describes your situation, AgencyHR is a no-brainer add-on. The $3/user pricing is trivial, and having HR functions inside the platform your team already uses daily eliminates adoption friction.
Agencies that primarily need PTO tracking, basic time clocking, and a way to document HR events (evaluations, write-ups, disciplinary notes) will get the most value. It handles these core tasks well and at a price point that’s hard to argue with.
AgencyHR is not the right fit for agencies with more than 50 employees that need advanced HR workflows, payroll integration, benefits administration, applicant tracking, or performance management with goal setting. It’s also not appropriate for any business outside the insurance industry, as the product is tightly coupled with AgencyZoom’s insurance-specific platform. If you don’t use AgencyZoom already, you should look elsewhere entirely.
AgencyHR Alternatives
Gusto
Gusto is a full-service HR and payroll platform that includes everything AgencyHR offers plus built-in payroll, benefits administration, tax filing, and compliance support. It starts at $40/month plus $6/user, making it significantly more expensive. But for agencies that need payroll and HR in one system, Gusto eliminates the manual data transfer that AgencyHR requires. Choose Gusto if you want a complete HR and payroll solution and don’t need insurance-industry-specific features.
BambooHR
BambooHR targets small to mid-sized businesses with a polished, full-featured HR platform covering onboarding, performance management, employee self-service, and reporting. Pricing is not publicly listed but generally runs higher than AgencyHR. BambooHR is the better choice if you need a mature, standalone HR platform with strong reporting and a broader feature set. It’s industry-agnostic, so you lose the insurance-specific integration but gain significantly more HR functionality.
Zenefits (TriNet)
Zenefits offers HR, payroll, and benefits management starting at $8/employee/month. It’s a better fit for agencies that need benefits administration and compliance tools. The interface is modern and the feature set is broader than AgencyHR. However, it has no connection to insurance agency management systems, so you’d run it as a completely separate platform from your agency operations.
HawkSoft
HawkSoft is an insurance agency management system that competes with AgencyZoom. While it doesn’t have a dedicated HR module comparable to AgencyHR, it offers some employee management features within its agency management platform. If you’re not committed to AgencyZoom and are evaluating agency management systems more broadly, HawkSoft is worth considering as an alternative ecosystem.
Homebase
Homebase provides free time tracking and scheduling for small teams, with paid tiers that add HR and compliance features. It starts with a genuinely free plan for one location. For agencies that only need time clocking and basic scheduling without the insurance-specific features, Homebase offers more functionality at a similar or lower price point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AgencyHR a standalone product?
No. AgencyHR is a module within AgencyZoom, which is now owned by Vertafore. You must have an active AgencyZoom account to use AgencyHR. It cannot be purchased or used independently.
How much does AgencyHR cost?
AgencyHR costs $8 per month as a base fee plus $3 per user per month. A 10-person agency would pay $38/month. A 30-day free trial is available with no credit card required.
Does AgencyHR include payroll?
No. AgencyHR does not process payroll. It tracks time and hours worked, and the time clock data integrates with AgencyZoom’s compensation calculator, but you will need a separate payroll provider to actually run payroll.
Does AgencyHR have a mobile app?
AgencyHR does not have a dedicated native mobile app. The platform is designed to be mobile-responsive, meaning it resizes and functions on iPhone and Android browsers. Employees can clock in and out from their mobile devices through a web browser.
Who owns AgencyHR now?
AgencyZoom, the company that built AgencyHR, was acquired by Vertafore in November 2021. The product is now part of Vertafore’s insurance technology portfolio and is branded as “AgencyZoom powered by Vertafore.”
Can non-insurance businesses use AgencyHR?
Technically, the HR features (time tracking, PTO, documentation) are not insurance-specific. However, AgencyHR requires an AgencyZoom account, which is an insurance agency management platform. For non-insurance businesses, there are better and more accessible HR tools available at similar price points.
What kind of support does AgencyHR offer?
Support is provided via live chat through the AgencyZoom support center, available Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time. Online help articles and setup guides are also available. There is no phone support or weekend availability.
The Bottom Line
AgencyHR does a few things well at a price that’s hard to beat. If you’re an insurance agency already running AgencyZoom, adding the HR module for $3/user/month is an easy decision. It handles PTO tracking, time clocking, HR event documentation, and internal communications competently, and having those functions inside your existing agency platform reduces tool sprawl.
But let’s be clear about what AgencyHR is not: it is not a comprehensive HRMS. There’s no payroll, no benefits administration, no applicant tracking, and no meaningful integration ecosystem. The product’s web presence is concerning (the main site fails to load), and the acquisition by Vertafore leaves its long-term development roadmap uncertain. The review data available is extremely sparse, making it difficult to assess reliability at scale.
We recommend AgencyHR as a convenient add-on for existing AgencyZoom customers who need basic HR functionality. For anyone else, including agencies shopping for their first HR platform, standalone solutions like Gusto, BambooHR, or even free tools like Homebase will serve you better.
